Login

Numerical taxonomy or taximetrics, nowadays frequently and perhaps more appropriately referred to as phenetics, refers to the application of various mathematical procedures to numerically encoded character state data for organisms under study. Thus, it is the analysis of various types of taxonomic data by mathematical or computerized methods and numerical evaluation of the similarities or affinities between taxonomic units, which are then arranged into taxa on the basis of their affinities. So, Numerical taxonomy is a classification system in biological systematics which deals with the grouping by numerical methods of taxonomic units based on their character states. It aims to create a taxonomy using numeric algorithms like cluster analysis rather than using subjective evaluation of their properties. The concept was first developed by Robert R. Sokal and Peter H. A. Sneath in 1963 and later elaborated by the same authors. They divided the field into phenetics in which classifications are formed based on the patterns of overall similarities and cladistics in which classifications are based on the branching patterns of the estimated evolutionary history of the taxa